The concentration of ink in a continuous binary inkjet array printer is typically maintained by replacing the ink vehicle lost due to evaporation with fresh fluids drawn from a dedicated replenishment container. The replenishment fluids used during operation are generally equivalent to the amount of vehicle evaporated from the ink supply during normal operation.
For a continuous solvent-based ink inkjet array printer, solvent based ink fluid is drawn from the replenishment container not only to maintain concentration, but also to flush the printhead and fluid system during startup, shutdown, and printhead cleaning sequences.
In the prior art, the fluids used to flush the printhead and fluid system were then diverted to an external waste tank where the solvent based waste ink was stored until the external waste tank was full. Then, the tank would be manually emptied into a waste collection drum or into a waste collection stream for treatment as a hazardous waste. The fluids used for flushing and the waste ink end up being a significant portion of the total ink consumed by a printer for both flushing and replenishment of the ink vehicle.
A need exists for recovery of waste fluid for an inkjet array printer, particularly one that uses solvent ink or solvent based cleaning fluids to flush the printhead and fluid system during startup, shutdown, and printhead cleaning sequences. A need exists for a system to collect and later reuse the used fluid to replenish ink vehicle lost due to evaporation, to minimizing the total amount of ink consumed and lower the cost of operation of the solvent based ink jet printhead.
The present embodiments described herein were designed to meet these needs.